CRYPTO CURRENCY:

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A

cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining
feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its most endearing allure, is its organic nature;
it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government
interference or manipulation.

The History Of Cryptocurrency:

The history of crytpocurrency is actually a fairly short one. Yes, we have had digital currency
systems before these cryptocurrencies existed, but they are not the same thing. As we mentioned
on our “Cryptocurrency Explained” page, former versions of digital currencies were strictly
centralized, whereas these new forms of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are
decentralized in nature.

Satoshi Nakamoto knew that another attempt at building an online centralized cash system would
only result in more failure, so he decided to create a digital cash system that had no centralized
authority. And so came the birth of the Bitcoin. Yes, Satoshi Nakamoto invented the Bitcoin, the
very first decentralized form of digital cash that had no central governing or controlling body.
Bitcoin was to be the property of the entirety of the Bitcoin community.

Nakamoto created Bitcoin back in 2008 and it’s value exploded without question. Back when it
was first created, it had a value of little over a single cent. However, the value quickly grew and
in late 2009 had already reached $27 for a single Bitcoin. Now, in 2017, a single Bitcoin has a
value of over $7,500, so as you can see, the value of this particular cryptocurrency has
skyrocketed to monumental levels.
BREAKING DOWN 'Cryptocurrency':
The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a
host of nefarious activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion.

The first cryptocurrency to capture the public imagination was Bitcoin, which was
launched in 2009 by an individual or group known under the pseudonym Satoshi
Nakamoto. As of September 2015, there were over 14.6 million bitcoins in circulation
with a total market value of $3.4 billion. Bitcoin's success has spawned a number of
competing cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin, Namecoin and PPCoin.

Cryptocurrency Benefits and Drawbacks

Cryptocurrencies make it easier to transfer funds between two parties in a transaction;
these transfers are facilitated through the use of public and private keys for security purposes.
These fund transfers are done with minimal processing fees, allowing users to avoid the steep
fees charged by most banks and financial institutions for wire transfers.

Central to the genius of Bitcoin is the block chain it uses to store an online ledger of all the
transactions that have ever been conducted using bitcoins, providing a data structure for this
ledger that is exposed to a limited threat from hackers and can be copied across all computers
running Bitcoin software. Many experts see this block chain as having important uses in
technologies, such as online voting and crowdfunding, and major financial institutions such as
JP Morgan Chase see potential in cryptocurrencies to lower transaction costs by making
payment processing more efficient.

However, because cryptocurrencies are virtual and do not have a central repository, a digital
cryptocurrency balance can be wiped out by a computer crash if a backup copy of
the holdings does not exist. Since prices are based on supply and demand, the rate at which a
cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another currency can fluctuate widely.
List of Top Cryptocurrencies 2015 – 2018:
To start this page off, let’s first take a look at the top 10 or so cryptocurrencies of 2015 – 2018
to get a sense of which ones have stuck around and which ones are up-and-coming.

This list was created by us (cryptocurrencyfacts.com) and is based on familiarity, market cap
(total coins that will ever be produced times current value), the ease with which a coin can be
traded for fiat currency like the US dollar, and the coins potential to survive trends.

In other words, these are the coins that we think make the most valid investments (in general,
not at a given moment) and are worth exploring for new coin users (not simply the coins with
the highest market cap, value, or most relevance alone). With that said, any “best of” list is
bound to have a bias, and this is true for this list as well. Feel free to make up your own mind.

In or opinion, the most relevant cryptocurrencies are:

 Bitcoin: Bitcoin is an easy pick. It was the first major usable cryptocurrency; it has the
highest market cap; its coins generally trade at the highest cost of all cryptocurrencies
(about USD 225 as of June 2015, but as high as $5,000 during early September 2017).
Despite the big increase in price, Bitcoin seems to be the best choice for anyone
entering the cryptocurrency space. It is the most familiar and invested-in coin.
Primarily Bitcoin is the reason anyone is talking about cryptocurrency in the first place.
You might not want to start a CPU-based Bitcoin mining company in 2017 or start buying
coins for $5,000 each (which is fine since you can buy fractions of a coin) but it’s still
going to take 1st place on our list.
 Litecoin: Litecoin is probably the second most important digital coin. It had the third-
highest market cap as of June 2015, but today it sits closer to 7. Despite the decline, CPU
mining is still sort of possible, people know what a Litecoin is, it uses essentially the
same technology of Bitcoin, and it costs about 1/50th – 1/100th of what Bitcoin does
(depending on the day). A Litecoin is a lot like a Bitcoin before the whole ‘Silk Road‘
controversy, or as some people would say “a Litecoin is like a Bitcoin except with a value
closer to what a reasonable person would expect a digital coin to have in a rational
market.”
 Ethereum: Is probably the third most important coin; it may be the second. It doesn’t
have the longevity at the top like Litecoin, but it is built on the same system that other
coins are built on. Most ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) use Ethereum. It has a less
intimidating cost that Bitcoin and has the second highest market cap. On that note,
Ethereum classic is also notable. Ethereum is a spin-off (aka “hard fork”) from what isn’t
today called Ethereum classic (like how our next up coin, Bitcoin cash, is a spin-off of
Bitcoin.)
  BitcoinCash and Bitcoin Gold: BitcoinCash is a spin-off of bitcoin, meant to have faster
transactions, voted on and implemented by the Bitcoin community. Bitcoin Gold is also
a spin-off, the goal of that coin is to have a coin that can be mined with a GPU (graphics
processor, like the ones AMD and NVIDA make). It is too early to be sure, but these
coins have a high market cap and could shape up to be top players over the long run.
Keep your eye on them, but don’t expect them to be guaranteed the staying power of
Bitcoin. They are interesting altcoins, but it’s unlikely either will ever truly challenge
Bitcoin for the top spot.
 Ripple: Ripple tends to have a steady price due to its large supply. It has had staying
power over time. Its a popular and speedy alternative to Bitcoin that often is less
volatile than other coins toward the top of the list.
 IOTA: IOTA is a popular coin with a large supply (meaning there are many MIOTAs out
there). It has one of the highest market caps today due to the tech behind it being
embraced by some big-name companies like Cisco Systems Inc, Volkswagen AG, and
Samsung Group. Any coin in the top 10 by market cap is worth keeping an eye on. IOTA
is no exception.
 Darkcoin (Dash): Darkcoin, known as Dash as of March 25, 2015 (dash=digital cash), but
previously known as XCoin, has unique functionality. XCoin was developed by Evan
Duffield who wanted to improve on Bitcoin but didn’t have the pull to do so. He
developed his own coin. It takes less power to mine Dash than most coins. Using less
energy to mine is important because mining coins is one of the most wasteful processes
you can imagine. The wasteful mining process is key to security and stability of all coins
that use a “proof-of-work” system. It prevents people from mining too fast. However,
environmentally, it’s a nightmare. People know what a Darkcoin is. Hopefully, this
familiarity rolls over to Dash. Back in 2015, Dash was one of the higher valued coins.
Today that is still true and it has performed just as well competitors like Ethereum.
There are some Dash millionaires out there.
 UPDATE: Dash broke out in 2017 to be a contender for the top cryptos. Buying high is
never a good idea, but averaging into a position in Dash long term is likely to be a smart
bet. If you are looking for Bitcoin alternatives without the word Bit in the title, you could
do a lot worse than Dash.
 Tether: Tether is meant to reflect the price of the US dollar. There are some criticisms to
consider. But if you want a stable coin for temporary use, Tether tends to be a good
choice. It isn’t an investment; it is a place to park your value in crypto when you are in-
between coins.

Below are coins that are no longer on our list of suggestions. They looked great in 2015, but
they didn’t stand up over time. Consider we noted Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash in 2015, and we
noted the coins below. If you invested in them at the time, you did very well. That said, being
off the list doesn’t make these coins a bad bet; it just means they aren’t as attractive as they
once were:
 Namecoin: In 2015 Namecoin looked promising, here in 2017 there is a little less hype.
Still, Namecoin is notable. Namecoin is almost the same as Bitcoin. It was the first “fork”
of the Bitcoin software. it’s based on Bitcoin and has the same unit cap, but has a few
tweaks in its data storage. Namecoin was originally just going to be an upgrade to
Bitcoin, but people were nervous that it would pose issues. So Namecoin is similar to
Bitcoin, but like all the currencies that are not-Bitcoin, it is worth a fraction of Bitcoin. Its
solid background and reasonable price point make it a relatively good coin to invest in.
Of all the coins noted so far, Namecoin has performed the most poorly so far. It is still
priced very low in USD.
 Nxt: Not only does this nifty coin sport a name similar to Steve Job’s other company; it
uses a cool and totally different algorithm for producing coins. This algorithm – an
implementation of a proof-of-stake scheme rather than proof-of-work – may be less
burdensome on the environment and has long-term potential. It may be worth a tad
less than the other coins we recommend; it is worth about a penny on the dollar on a
good day. However, less cost per coin means you have less to lose if the coin value
deflates. Nxt is like Namecoin. It had a super cool code but didn’t though perform at the
same level as other cryptos (until late 2017 where it saw a notable price hike). It is still
priced very low in USD.
 Peercoin: Like Nxt, Peercoin (abbreviated PPC) uses a proof-of-stake system; in fact, it
was the first proof-of-stake coin. It’s worth about $0.40 on the USD and has a market
cap of almost ten million. This coin has everything going for it and may be a smart bet as
far as cryptocurrency goes. As an added bonus to confidence and quality behind the
coin Peercoin was developed by Sunny King. Sunny King is, or might be, the guy who
created Bitcoin or another coin, or maybe Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent. It’s hard to tell as
the culture of cryptocurrency puts importance on peer-to-peer, code, and coin over
developers. Still, he is important, and like-it-or-not little things like this could be the
deciding factor in whether a coin sinks or swims in the new market. Peercoin has a story
like Nxt and Namecoin where they are long-running coins.

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